In spite of what I wrote in my previous post, I have actually knit some items for Christmas. I can’t go into too much detail, since certain gift recipients are probably reading this post right now, but I can show you this:

This is a detail from the scarf I knit for my spouse. The yarn is a mohair/silk blend called Tsuki, which I bought at ArtFibers in San Francisco. Don’t ask me for the pattern; it came free with the yarn, and my lips are sealed.

Anyway, I’m not just posting this to make you drool. I’m putting this here to provide an example of the Transcendent Project. How do you know when you’re knitting a Transcendent Project? When you can’t believe that it’s you who is knitting the thing you’re knitting; when you have to stop every two or three rows and run your hands all over your project; when you keep showing it to all of your friends, even though it’s nowhere near finished, but somehow your friends don’t ever get sick of looking at it.

The Transcendent Project is the result of a perfect convergence of pattern design and fiber content. In the case of my Tsuki scarf (of which I can take the credit for neither the design nor the yarn choice), the drop-stitch pattern is the just the thing for this kind of yarn. The fiber is already ghostly and ephemeral; the pattern just brings that all out. Too bad you can’t touch it, because it feels awesome. I finished this scarf almost a month ago, and I’m still sorry that I’m not knitting it anymore.

The opposite of the Transcendent Project is the Cursed Project. More on that later.